Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Fato e Furia

I wasn't moved or challenged by this book; it just left me frustrated. I did not like this depiction of marriage at all. There was so much troubling, gratuitous content that didn't have any pay-off in the end. The whole book just made me feel icky. Some of Groff's writing was really lovely, and I was intrigued through the whole book. I didn't even consider quitting. That and the strong emotions that this book evoked from me are testaments to Groff's writing. I'm curious to read some of her other works, but this book was not for me.

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nirt_alert's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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jenna_lynn's review against another edition

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reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love the perspective shift in the middle of the book. The first half is told from the husband’s point of view and the second from the wife’s. They each have secrets and shame in their pasts that they keep buried throughout their entire life together, and only by reading both parts can you truly understand the characters and their relationship to one another.

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baibake's review against another edition

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Wasn’t what I expected. Described topics which I don’t like to read about and create visual images in my mind.

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5aru's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Groff's writing is certainly exquisite, reads like cold water down the throat, but I have rather complicated feelings about this book. On the one hand, I am deeply disgusted by the characters at a personal, primal level; on the other, I was incredibly invested in their histories, their relationships, their deep dark corners of the self. It's clear that the visceral disgust or repudiation the characters provoke is more than intentional - it is intrinsic to who they are and what their story is.

It does feel a bit too soap-opera-ish at times, with the ways the plot turned, and it's definitely not a book that will resonate with you in any positive way. It's far more likely to leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth, and yet, it is wholly unforgettable.

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bronzeageholly's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Reading this book felt like I was in a big room full of people with special headphones on where I could only pick up bits of a conversation at a time. I was being slowly led through by someone I didn’t quite know and didn’t quite understand. It felt like I meandered so dreamily past, but was given just enough time to understand each passing person’s deepest fears and thoughts. After time, quite a long time, being led through the room, my guide took me to the top of the stairs and I looked over the balcony and was so shocked to see how everything and everybody we had passed came together so vibrantly and horrifically and beautifully.

I appreciate this book for how much it made me contemplate human existence.

It was very long though.

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ruthie_the_librarian's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

At the point where I felt like I had been reading forever, I saw I still had about 85% (9 hours...) left to read and I very nearly lost the will to go on. But it's for my book group, and I don't like to dnf because then I can't talk about it, but oh my goodness it was hard going! The first part of the book is all Lotto, which is perhaps why it was so trying to read. I was torn between wanting to know what would happen to him, and thinking he was a dick. I did feel the pace picked up in the 2nd half with Mathilde, but perhaps that was just because I could sense the end was in sight. It is too, too long. There is too, too much bad sex. And nobody was very nice at all. I was intrigued, at least, with what on earth we were going to learn about Mathilde when it came to her part of the story. And I did race through the last part because of it. But ultimately, I'm not sure it was worth it, and it really bothered me that

although Mathilde has been editing and tweaking Lotto's work for years, managing his money, managing him, her own writing ends up being a failure.
What was the message here? That she was only useful with regards to his career? That annoyed me.

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valjeanval's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I wouldn’t pick up a book that basically said “it’s about a marriage” except that Lauren Groff wrote it. What an incredible, complex, brilliant exploration of a marriage.

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